No Thanks, Please

I am a friend of Ernest van den Haag. I’m afraid that sounds like a boast. I’m especially afraid it sounds like a boast to Ernest. I can no more imagine him paralyzed by modesty than suckered by a non-sequitur.

He phoned me recently to say he was debating Roy Innis on affirmative action that evening at Yale. Would I like to come along? He knew the answer. I met him at Grand Central a few hours later, feeling a bit like Dr. Watson setting out for the English countryside with Sherlock Holmes.